


Defender of the Universe

by HerenorThereNearnorFar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, In Universe Storytelling, Metafiction, Revolution!, Rumors, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 18:06:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7325215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerenorThereNearnorFar/pseuds/HerenorThereNearnorFar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even in the heart of the Galra Empire, people hear things. There are whispers about things the Empire does not want known. Rumours run deep and winding as roots, and everyone listens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defender of the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> I got a bit too invested in Voltron worldbuilding again and really love the idea of the team becoming a symbol of hope. I wanted this to be realistically weird, over exaggerated, and mythologized with little details switched up, like someone was playing an intergalactic game of Telephone. So blue became purple and I played up the princess and Champion fronts. Poor Coran got forgotten. That sort of thing. As for the writing style, no excuses there. I just want these children to succeed inspire people to make up wild stories.

Have you heard the story?

No? You’d know it if you heard it, I promise. New arrivals told us last night in the barracks. Couldn't stop talking about it. You might want to brace yourself for this one.

You remember all those old children’s legends about Voltron? Turns out, they’re true.

Don’t look so skeptical. I heard it from a dozen people. Said they heard it from someone who saw it with his own eyes. A great ship, shaped a bipedal, large as a mountain or a Galra flag ship and capable of taking out fleets, fleets I tell you! It destroyed eight flag ships at a go once! One time it escaped Zarkon himself!

Sorry. Didn’t mean to be so loud. Is that guard gone?

Right. So, it was on Jummeran-9. Farming colony, don’tcha know? Off on the rim edge of the empire. Lots of fields and labor camps. They strip mine and deforest too. Then one days whispers start coming in. The Galrans are getting nervous. Shipments stop arriving. People say, something’s coming, be ready. Some of the younger ones hope for a revolution and start to arm themselves, the older ones say there is no hope. There have been a thousand revolutions before and all have failed.

It came out of the sky one morning, like a dream. Half the people thought they were dreaming, so strange was the sight.

Giant, metal, made of metals in all the colours of the light spectrum. Gleaming like it was newly made. It batted the Galra ships right out of the sky, destroyed their cannons and equipment! A huge castle of white stone, flying on wings of steel appeared and rested in the sky. The people started to riot. Then the thing- the Voltron- broke into pieces and those pieces scattered about and went to the main camps, made the Galra surrender. In the smaller camps the people rose up themselves. Thousands of Galra were defeated. Their weapons crumbled to dust in their hands.

There was a broadcast, a being with pale hair on the top of her head, who said, “The Galra must surrender, this place is free now. It is under the protection of Voltron.”

They found the leaders, those who led the native people of the world, and they found leaders among the prisoners who had been brought there too. They brought technology to heal and make the water good again, to save the forests and plains. The old cities opened up and the prison camps emptied out. Ships came in from other systems that had been freed, with word of the galaxy outside. They told stories, stories about the people who had saved them too.

She’s a princess, you see? The child of a leader from long ago, before Zarkon. Her parent was a brilliant sorcerer and engineer and they made the Voltron with their own two hands and then created those who would pilot it.

Five. Small. Bipedal. Wearing white. They look like their princess in form, because they were made in her image. They say the pilots are fell warriors on their own, and even more deadly in their ships. Created to be the most fearsome in the galaxy and to keep the peace. To protect the innocent and do no harm.

Don't laugh.

But when Zarkon rose to power he knew he could not defeat Voltron. So his druids- hush! they exist, I know they do- wove an evil spell. The princess and the pilots of Voltron fell into a deep sleep, and could not be awakened. The king had no choice but to hide Voltron and hope the spell could be broken.

Then they slept for, I don’t know, a really long time. A really, really long time. And without Voltron around, Zarkon, he rose to power. Nobody could stop him.

Then, the Champion came. Yeah, the one from the gladiator matches! No, he’s a good guy. You’ve heard how he always spares his opponents. It’s not just to make them live with their shame.

The Champion saw the suffering of the people and decided to make it right. He escaped from the gladiator’s pit and stole a ship from right under the Galra's noses. Before he left a wise elder gave him the only advice they knew, a story passed down through generations, or a call to arms, more like.

“Find Voltron.”

The Champion ran from the fighters, hid in the most remote of places, scavenged and hunted and searched and searched and searched until he found the place where the princess and the pilots had been hidden away. He went to the place where she slumbered, sat beside her bed and begged her to wake up, to free the people suffering under the Galra Empire. He spoke of starvation and blood. Of the brutality of the soldiers. Of worlds desolated and destroyed. He spoke for days, without food or water, His plea was so impassioned that she stirred, and then drew breath again. Her eyes opened.

Her pilots did as well, all five of them.

What?

No, Jov. I did not ask you. Besides, I didn’t hear that the Champion was one of the pilots. That doesn’t make any sense.

Your face doesn’t make any sense!

Well, maybe one of the pilots died in between, and the Champion took his place, alright?

The pilots can’t all be amateurs. That’s kind of stupid. Only the Champion or a tailor made being could pilot Voltron.

Okay. Glad we got that sorted out.

So, the lead pilot had died in his sleep, found by Voltron, so the Champion had to take his place. The other pilots woke up and began to make themselves ready to fight. The purple one, the green one, the red one, and the yellow one- yes, I’m sure that’s right- donned their armour again.

The red one has all the quickness of a Applian swamp beast.

The green one is cleverer than any man, even a druid.

The purple one is always wise and good at speaking.

The yellow one has more strength than even one of the Galra!

They jumped in their ships, made in the shapes of the Altean lions of old, and made ready.

But the princess was less certain. It had been so long, and Zarkon had grown so strong. Her aide who had gone into sleep with her and the Champion, convinced her. They had to fight. The people had suffered long enough. Fire filled her heart and inspired determination in the pilots in turn, for they too hated to see the innocent hurt. The Champion knew he had found the one who would defeat Voltron, and he knew he would follow her until his dying days.

So her castle grew wings and leapt into the sky, made a hyperspace portal like out of one of your grandmama’s stories, and went to begin saving the universe.

Every planet they save they gain allies. Every system they liberate means more voices raised against Zarkon’s rule. The princess will never give up, because she was hurt by Zarkon so long ago. Her pilots will never abandon her, and neither will the Champion. They all love her.

The Champion will clear the fighting pits, they say. The Green Pilot will make their ships and weapons useless. The Red Pilot will outrun all their attacks. The Purple Pilot will bring strength to all with his wise words. The Yellow Pilot will shield the innocent from the Galra. And when they work together to make the Voltron weapon, nothing will stand in their way.

Look, I know it’s hard to believe. But it makes sense. The Galra have been so skittish lately. And the people I talked to, they really seemed to believe it. They said they’d heard about Voltron and the princess from lots of sources. Those who were freed and then went looking for their families and got recaptured, Spacers flying between free and Galra space. Soldiers who fought Voltron themselves! Jov, you heard about it too, right? And we’re in completely different barracks. More of the new arrivals must have brought their own stories about it, about them, about her. About the rebels who fight behind them and help them save others. The Voltron Alliance.

They’re coming. Slowly but surely. Someone is fighting back.

It makes sense. Zarkon couldn’t rule forever. Some beings must be able to match him, it’s only logical. Maybe it sounds like fairy tales, but there’s a grain of truth in those, ain’t there?

Besides, I mean-

Well, it can't hurt to hope.


End file.
